A retired police officer in Kolkata accused Mamata Banerjee of abetment to suicide
Highlights
- Gaurav Dutt was found dead at Kolkata home last Tuesday
- Mr Dutt was suspended for nine months in February 2010
- BJP leader Mukul Roy said there should be a CBI probe into the case
The alleged suicide of a senior police officer in Kolkata has become fodder for attack by the BJP on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The party's Mukul Roy has demanded Ms Banerjee's arrest for abetment to suicide and has demanded a CBI probe into the case.
"This is for the first time in the history of West Bengal that a senior IPS officer committed suicide and blamed the government or a party leader," Mr Roy said.
In the alleged suicide note that is viral on social media, the officer, Gaurav Dutt, accused Mamata Banerjee of abetting his suicide by keeping him on "compulsory waiting" - a punitive step when an officer is not given a posting - and for withholding his dues after he retired on December 31, 2018.
How the 'suicide note' went viral is not clear. Mr Dutt was a 1986 batch IPS officer.
On Tuesday, his wife returned home to find him in a pool of blood at his Salt Lake home. His wrists were slit. He was immediately taken to the hospital but did not survive.
The state government is tight-lipped about the incident. Sources claim that none of the dues mentioned in the alleged suicide note were pending and Mr Dutt was on compulsory waiting because of disciplinary proceedings initiated him.
Mr Dutt was suspended for nine months from February 2010 for "conduct unbecoming of an officer". According to reports, he was suspended after the wife of a constable complained that Mr Dutt had tortured her husband because he had refused the officer's sexual advances.
In 2012, he had again faced disciplinary action for alleged financial irregularities.
Mukul Roy has urged the IPS association to take up the cause of Mr Dutt.
Ms Banerjee, who had protested three weeks ago against arbitrary action by the CBI on the then Kolkata Police Commissioner, had also invoked the IPS Association and said that it would surely speak up in favour of Rajeev Kumar. The CBI had virtually stormed his official residence on February 3, to question him in connection with the chit fund scam.